Walking along a mountainside - Professor Dinh Xuan Lam and the anti-colonialism movement in Vietnam

The first significant work was the bookHistory of Vietnam 1897 - 1914(co-authored) (Construction Publishing House, Hanoi, 1957). The next book began to reveal a historical style of Dinh Xuan Lam, which is character research.: Hoang Hoa Tham and the Yen The peasant movement(co-authored) (Culture Publishing House, Hanoi, 1958). It should also be added that, in addition to focusing on studying characters and history, the young historian Dinh Xuan Lam was one of the closest and most intimate students of Professor Tran Van Giau - I would like to add that he was "most direct", because in the first years of participating in building this major at Hanoi University of Science, "Uncle Lam", as Professor Giau affectionately called him, was the one who directly helped the Professor in building the curriculum and lesson plans for the subject and of course, in publishing the first historical works of the major.

Professor, People's Teacher Dinh Xuan Lam - leading expert on modern history/Photo: Thanh Long

In those first works, Dinh Xuan Lam also revealed another strength that was quite rare among historians at that time: combining historical and literary research.Poetry by Nguyen Quang Bich(co-written) (Culture Publishing House, Hanoi, 1962) is the first evidence. Later, the author introduced himself, amused by the fate that arranged something similar to his teacher in his relationship with Professor Giau: during many years working at the Department of Modern and Contemporary Vietnamese History, Faculty of History, Hanoi University of Science, including the early years of the University of Social Sciences and Humanities (since 1995), I was also given by Professor Lam to benefit from many of his valuable experiences and in the way, as he often told me, it was Professor Giau's method of passing on the profession...

What's even more interesting is that in the 80s and 90s of the 20th century, during many training and scientific research activities in my field, Professor Lam more than once encouraged me "even if I miss out on a literary career, I should still pass it on to my historical pen", and this has been a motivation and obsession for me almost throughout my writing career...

He is one of the legendary "four pillars" of the Faculty of History (along with Professor, People's Teacher Phan Huy Le, Professor, People's Teacher Ha Van Tan, and the late Professor, Meritorious Teacher Tran Quoc Vuong)/Photo: Jackie Chan

But perhaps the first works of Professor Lam that firmly affirmed his position in the professional community were his participation and co-authorship of the textbook series.Modern History of Vietnamwhich Professor Tran Van Giau initiated and edited with its true meaning. The textbook is printed in large format, each volume is not too thick but from the way it is divided to the content, its style of expression all meet the standards for many generations of teachers and of course students and researchers. Please allow me to repeat, in this book series, in volume 1,Modern History of Vietnam(Education Publishing House, Hanoi, 1959) right below author Tran Van Giau are Dinh Xuan Lam, Nguyen Van Su. In volume 2 (1961), the position of author Dinh Xuan Lam's name remains the same, after Nguyen Van Su, there is Dang Huy Van. In volumes 3 (1961) and 4 (1963), the position of author Dinh Xuan Lam's name remains unchanged, only the third author of volume 4 changes, with the appearance of a new writer Kieu Xuan Ba...

Later, Dinh Xuan Lam also participated in writing many other modern Vietnamese history books, such as the most recent one:History of Vietnam(Volume 3, Vietnam Education Publishing House, 2012) (Dinh Xuan Lam, editor-in-chief).

Professor, People's Teacher Dinh Xuan Lam and Professor, People's Teacher Vu Duong Ninh at Me Tri Hall in 2003 / Photo: Bui Tuan

When interviewed about the educational career of Professor Tran Van Giau, although our generation is the Professor's "students of students", I commented that: "The MinistryModern History of Vietnamedited by Mr. Giau with key writers such as Dinh Xuan Lam is still an exemplary, very pedagogical, very basic book series. The important thing is that the system of documents and viewpoints of this history series has dominated the historians of modern Vietnamese history for a very long time. Reiterating this comment, we just want to affirm that Dinh Xuan Lam's pen, right from the beginning of his career, had a favorable "launching pad". Later, his great viewpoints on modern Vietnamese history from the periodization to the main contents of each period had a great influence on our generation in teaching as well as research, even though the times, academia, and approaches in recent decades have changed significantly.

Representatives of the University of Social Sciences and Humanities, the University's Former Teachers' Association, the History Department and many generations of students came to celebrate the 90th birthday of Professor Dinh Xuan Lam at his home in May 2015.

Since the 60s and 70s of the 20th century, the catchphrase and pride of the “General History Department” “Lam - Le - Tan - Vuong” certainly applies to the case of Professor Lam related to our above analysis. His profound knowledge and captivating teaching ability have of course been deeply imprinted through many generations in all training institutions and specialized research institutes in the country and perhaps even abroad when Professor Lam was one of the first people to be appointed as a visiting professor at the Universities of Paris (France), Madagascar (Africa)...

It seems that during those years of active and continuous professional activities as a leading expert in modern history, with a wealth of accumulated knowledge, Professor Dinh Xuan Lam did not have time to calm down in his own works. In return, he continued to have a series of co-authored books that experts still remember:From Ba Dinh to Hung Linh(Thanh Hoa Publishing House, 1985),Thanh Hoa City(Thanh Hoa, 1990),Ho Chi Minh's thoughts on building Vietnamese culture(National Political Publishing House, Hanoi, 1998);Contribute to the study of Ho Chi Minh's life and thought(National Political Publishing House, Hanoi, 2005);Hanoi in the national liberation movement at the end of the 19th century - early 20th century(Hanoi Publishing House, Hanoi, 2010);The Revolutionary Patriotic Movement of the Early 20th Century: People and Events(Labor Publishing House, Hanoi, 2012)... Regardless, returning to the pages of history that my teacher devoted his entire life to researching is, in many ways, still very necessary...